| Beverly
Hammack shows off some of her quilts hanging at the
Southeastern Quilt & Textile Museum in downtown
Carrollton, Georgia on November 16, 2012. |
 |
CARROLLTON,
Ga. — When the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum
opened this fall in a modest 20- by 24-foot room in
downtown Carrollton, the location was not nearly as big as
the dreams of the founders.
One
day, suggested board member Beverly Hammack, Carrollton
will host something like the American Quilter’s Society’s
annual show, which brings 36,000 visitors to Paducah, Ky.,
on a single spring weekend, filling the town’s hotels,
swamping its restaurants and wrapping it in textile
psychedelia.
And
one day the museum may build out the entire cotton
warehouse where, in one corner, it currently makes its
home. In the meantime, the Georgia Quilt Council can
congratulate itself on finally landing a brick-and-mortar
headquarters for the state’s most beautiful quilts.
"Once
the idea came about, it took us 14 years to get a
permanent address," said Hammack.
That
location is in a partially renovated brick building just
off the downtown square. Following the opening in
September, the museum wasted no time launching exhibits,
starting with a show of quilts made by the West Georgia
Quilters Guild. Next month, the museum will display work
designed by youngsters at Bowdon Elementary School,
embodying scenes from some of their favorite books, along
with a group of works from adults called "Not Your
Grandmother’s Quilt." The museum has already
welcomed visitors from 28 Georgia towns, 14 states and a
few foreign countries. What they discover is the same
thing New York Times critic Michael Kimmelmann learned
about the quilts of Gee’s Bend, the little Alabama
collective that put quilting on the national map: Not only
are the best quilts "eye-poppingly gorgeous,"
but they are art.
"I’m
painting a picture," Hammack said of her own
freestyle work, "it just happens to be with
cloth."
Textiles
were once the biggest industry in Carrollton — and
elsewhere in Georgia — and a group of Georgia counties
have banded together to pay homage to that history,
creating the Textile Heritage Trail. There are five
informational kiosks along the section of the trail that
runs through Carrollton, including one in the museum’s
parking lot.
The
quilter’s guild has hosted shows in the past at various
locales, including the state Capitol, to help raise money
for the museum. But an actual street address makes
applying for certain grants feasible. It also helps
Jonathan Dorsey bring people to town. "Now we’re
able to market an actual quilt museum, and not just the
idea of a quilt museum," said Dorsey, executive
director of the Carrollton Area Convention and Visitor’s
Bureau.
Visitors
arrive in a trickle now, but museum planners expect 50,000
a year eventually. And, who knows? Maybe Paducah can be
replicated in Carrollton.
The
Kentucky gathering is "an awesome thing to
behold," said Robin Leeper, who moved her quilting
supplies store, Qwiltz Quilt Shop, to Carrollton to be
near the museum. "One week a year, the quilters take
over that town."
———
IF
YOU GO:
The
Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum, 49 miles from
downtown Atlanta, is open three days a week, noon to 6
p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturdays; admission: $3; 306 Bradley Street, Carrollton,
GA 30117; information: 770-301-2187;